It is previously known to use various types of toothed plates for interconnecting wooden beams. Such a plate is known from, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2 606 666. The "teeth", i.e. the protrusions serving as nails in the toothed plate, are in such devices produced by punching out and bending arrow-shaped protrusions in the plate. This procedure limits the thickness of the plate used. With steel plates over about 2 mm thick it is very difficult to produce in a simple way the punches and bendings referred to. The disadvantage of this toothed plate is thus its poor capacity to transfer high tensile, compressive and shear forces. In the device according to U.S. Pat. No. 3,498,170, the toothed plate produced thus by punching is reinforced by placing on the tooth-side of the plate a separate perforated plate which supports the teeth. The reinforcing effect of this separate additional plate does not, however, correspond to, for example, the increased weight, and the structure requires a very high manufacturing precision in order to work at all.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a new connector is disclosed in, for example, Finnish Patent Application No. 833 655, the connector having a very thick steel plate to which a large number of teeth have been secured by, for example, welding. By this solution it is possible to produce a joint capable of transferring very high forces. This solution has, however, a disadvantage in its relatively expensive manufacturing method. Also the connector is very heavy and the material costs are high.